8.03.05 – Forest fires

Fire is a prevalent disturbance on the global landscape with several hundred million hectares of vegetation burning every year. Land and forest fires (collectively referred to as wildland fires) occur annually in all global vegetation zones, although most fire is unmonitored and undocumented. Increasing wildland fire activity has been reported in many regions, and published studies predict this trend to continue as climate change progresses.

Fire plays an essential role in the structure and function of many ecosystems, but it can also have many serious negative impacts on human safety, health, regional economies, and global climate change. Fire management, including fire suppression and the prescribed use of fire, is becoming increasingly important and complex due to the wide range of environmental, social, and economic impacts.

Fire researchers and fire managers around the world face many similar problems. The goal of this Unit is to support international fire research efforts to address common issues, and to promote the exchange of fire research and fire management knowledge within the international fire community.

The IUFRO Unit Forest Fires provides a link to internationally concerted fire research programmes and other international activities in collaboration in fire science, management and policy development. A joint fire information system has been set up at the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC):

http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/ 

This global fire website facilitates the co-operation between scientists all over the world and ensures a timely flow of information. The GFMC website is updated daily. It also contains numerous sources relevant to the activities of other IUFRO Units.

Current key fire issues/questions for research study include: climate change-fire interactions, impacts of changing vegetation (fuel) conditions and fire regimes, increasing threat to human life, property and livelihoods by disaster fires, increasing human health risk (fire emissions), fire and biodiversity dynamics, and fire and forest carbon balance. There is also a trend to address fire problems through increased international cooperation by fire research and fire management communities. The IUFRO Forest Fires Unit supports this approach by facilitating networking of scientists and practitioners in the global fire community, and hosting wildland fire sessions on current fire research and applications during the IUFRO World Congress.